Yesterday afternoon, our Loudoun Wildlife Conservancy Group on a vernal pool
field trip led by Mike Hayslett (Dir., VA Vernal Pools Project) and Nicole
Hamilton (Pres.,LWC) saw about a dozen Rusty Blackbirds and an adult
red-shouldered Hawk associated with a vernal pool at Algonkian Regional Park
(Loudoun Co.). Hayslett was the first to identify the Rusties and to point out
how they, and the Red-shouldered hawk, calling out while circling the canopy ,
are intimately associated with vernal pools and seasonally flooded swamp
forests: The RSHAs take advantage of the mass emergence and migration of Wood
Frogs to vernal pools for their annual mating ritual to prey on the frogs,
while the rusties often feed on insects along the water's edge but also feed on
tadpoles. The vernal pools at the park had several hundred Wood Frog chorusing
males, mating pairs, and egg masses.
